Silver Creek’s Carrie Ramirez (22) drives around Valor Christian’s Caroline Bryan, right, during the game at D’Evelyn High School on March 1, 2013. (Greg Lindstrom, Longmont Times-Call)

After leading the Valor Christian girls basketball team to the first state semifinal appearance in school history, head coach Sherryl Klosterman is stepping down.

“I’ve coached high school basketball for 29 years,” she said. “I’m at the point in my career where I want to pursue the next level.”

Klosterman has also coached at Denver Lutheran, Brighton and Eaglecrest during her career, leading all three teams to the state semifinals. She said it has been a dream of her’s to coach at the collegiate level. However, she remained tight-lipped about what her future plans were.

“I think the biggest thing to take is the impact on the kids’ lives,” she said. “The life lessons you get to teach them.”

Klosterman had been at Valor Christian since 2009, leading them to a 79-40 record. Last season, the Eagles finished with a record of 23-4, setting a record for most wins in a season for the school.

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Monarch’s Jay MacIntyre (55) fights for control against Mountain Range’s Elijah Cone (25) and Tyler Sullivan (4) at Monarch High School in Louisville on Jan. 3, 2014. (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)

On Monday, we introduced a new feature at The Denver Post and at partner news outlets around Colorado — the Colorado AP Media Poll, with the help of The Associated Press. The poll features votes from reporters, broadcasters and other media members from around the state, from Denver to Boulder, Montrose, Grand Junction, Pueblo and Fort Collins and places in between. The Denver Post’s Neil Devlin, Joe Nguyen and prep/outdoors sports editor Torin Berge are The Post’s voting members in the poll.

The rest of the polls are below. See anything amiss? What teams should be where? Feel free to go on the record in the comments below. If you would like to vote in the poll, please email Joe Nguyen, online prep sports editor at The Denver Post, at jnguyen@denverpost.com.

Jordan Molyneaux blocks out for Regis in game against Monarch in December. (BoCoPreps)

Today we introduce a new feature at The Denver Post and at partner news outlets around Colorado — The Colorado AP Media Poll, with the help of The Associated Press. First up, the girls polls, from Class 5A through 1A. We’ll post the boys poll soon.

The poll collects votes from reporters around the state, from Pueblo to Grand Junction to Boulder to Fort Collins to Denver and points in between.

How’s this for juxtaposition? Just as the finishing touches are being put on Cañon City’s new track and lights at Citizens’ Stadium, there are serious doubts that Florence High School will play any home games at Husky Stadium this season.

The two schools, which are separated by roughly 10 miles, or 20 minutes, are heading opposite ways in terms of facilities.

Cañon City, a 3A football school, is slated to receive 32 new lights for the field today, set to be installed in time for the fall sports season. Two weeks from now, the paving on a new track should be finished.

The irony, as Adam pointed out in his original tweet, is that Bredow led Denver Lutheran to the 2A state championship last season … where they beat Lutheran-Parker. Suffice it to say, Lutheran High School boys basketball will have some top-notch coaching next season.

“Looking forward to working with Ryan,” Adam later tweeted. “He did a great job at Denver Lutheran and will be a valuable asset to our program.”

Don’t think anyone could possibly question this decision: Bredow was our All-Colorado coach of the year this season.

Denver Lutheran opened its gym in 1968. This picture shows a ceremony at its opening.

When all the celebrations are over tonight — those celebrations marking all those moments through history — and the fans shuffle out, there will be a moment when the only person who remains is the one charged with the gym’s care. Tonight, that person will flip a switch that extinguishes the lights in Denver Lutheran’s Lighthouse for the last time.

The school, which is set to merge with Lutheran-Parker next fall, is holding the final two games in its gyms’ near 43-year history tonight. Both the girls (5:30 p.m. tip) and the boys (7 p.m.) squads will play CIVA Charter in the District Four playoffs.

“It’s kind of one of those bittersweet things,” said Rany Gager, who coaches the third-seeded girls (12-7). “We’ll try to make it as much of a celebration as possible, but it’s going to be kind of sad for many, many people. End-of-an-era kind of thing, I guess.”

It’s an era that started Feb. 24, 1968, the day the gym rocked. The Lighthouse had opened just in time to close 1968’s regular season against rival Denver Christian.

Neil Devlin, originally from the Philadelphia area, has covered high school sports in Colorado for more than 30 years, writing about the people, athletes and events that encompass the Rocky Mountain prep sports world.